Frona's open face tomato sandwiches

I was stumbling through some old recipes when, for some reason, one of them triggered a memory of a childhood lunch favorite that I haven’t even thought of in years. I remember coming home from school for lunch. My mom would make these sandwiches for me and I loved them. They are even good made with store bought tomatoes. 

I’ve taken a little license with Frona’s recipe. She didn’t always add bacon, and she had never heard of cajun seasoning back in those days. Don’t worry, she doesn’t get as huffy with her recipes as Aunt Ginny does.

Now, keep in mind that this recipe comes from back in the days before government school lunch standards, so I don’t know if this would be ok’d for school children today. Just to be safe, you’d better submit it to the FDA and the USDA for approval. You don’t want to have your child’s lunch confiscated and risk a fine.

Slices of homemade bread, toasted

Mayonnaise

Large ripe tomatoes

Bacon slices, crisp

Cajun seasoning

Fresh ground white pepper

Sliced cheese: American works, Cheddar 

and Provolone are better

Preparation

Toast the homemade bread and set the slices on a cutting board. Slather the toast with gobs of mayonnaise. Add thick slices of tomato to cover the mayo. Season the tomatoes with cajun seasoning and white pepper.

Place several pieces of bacon over the tomatoes. Now cover the bacon with two cheese slices. Place the open face sandwich on a baking sheet. When you have the sheet filled with sandwiches, place them under a hot broiler. Broil until the cheese is melted and browned.

Serving

I like three or four of these as the main course of my lunch. I also like french fries with them. 

Note, if you are serving these to school children, you’d better give them some apple slices instead. If the school lunchroom police find out that you gave your child french fries, they might report you. Besides, they sell these ready-slice apples that never turn brown. If the apocalypse happens, future alien archeologists will find them still fresh and juicy.

For me, however, I’ll take the fries and an ice cold beer, or two. They haven’t gotten around to regulating my lunch ... yet.